Tips For Aspiring Authors

Some people were talking to me recently at a party. The topic turned to writing as a full-time profession. A young man said,”It must be fun to live the good life, earning so much that you just write all day long, which anyway is something you love doing.”  I said, “I am doing this as a second career after retirement. Don’t forget I worked for more than 35 years as a professional before taking to writing.” I went on to say, “You have to be a top-notch writer, with a few lucky breaks thrown in for good measure, to be able to live only on the strength of your earnings through your writing.” I don’t mean to be discouraging but a lot of people in India, especially the young, seem to have too rosy a picture of the field of writing. They have a lot of spirit , which I greatly admire but sometimes in their enthusiasm lose sight of some harsh realities.

Observations on Back Cover Copy

I picked up ” Survival Of  The Savvy” by Rick Brandon, Ph.D and Marty Seldman, PhD, from our Club library. The byline on the front cover proclaims ” High-Integrity Political Tactics for Career and Company Success.” That’s great so far. The copy in my hand was published in May 2007 and is a Free Press Export Edition from Simon & Schuster.

On the back cover, the first quote is from Ramalinga Raju, Chairman Satyam Computer Services Ltd. he writes,” Global leaders today recognize the significance of being connected…candidly and openly discusses the political health of an organization, beginning with the important lessons of closed shop, and the demand for a high-integrity culture.”

Below that, Rama Raju, Managing Director of Satyam writes, “Our commitment at Satyam is to recognize the impact of corporate power and influence and to orchestrate a climate of politically savvy leaders”

I don’t blame the authors one bit because they weren’t astrologers to predict the future.  In January 2009, a scandal hit India which many observers believed was unprecedented in its audacity or scale. I speak of the Satyam Computers scandal which created a huge furor in the minds of corporate India, the investing public and the employees of that company.

How ironic it sounds to hear the Rajus say what they did! For greater perspective, here’s an insightful article by Prof. Sudhakar V. Balachandran of  the Columbia Business School in Forbes. Sure, things have changed at the erstwhile Satyam over the last couple of years.

But coming back to the importance of back cover copy, isn’t it essential for the publishers to change the quotes in that back cover copy? They may have done so already. If they have, good for them. If they haven’t, my sympathies lie with the authors. I am sure they would not, even in their wildest dreams have imagined that the Rajus, who wrote so glowingly about the book would have ended up where they did.

On Literary Agents

In this very interesting blog post by Alan Rinzler in The Book Deal, four top literary agents share their thoughts on the future of publishing and the role of literary agents in a fast-changing environment. The four, all veterans and eminently successful literary agents themselves are: Candice Fuhrman, Andrea Brown,  Andrea Hurst and Bonnie Solow.

Titles & Back Cover Copies

How important is your book title? Shouldn’t  it grab the attention of your potential buyer? Does a one-word title work better than longer options, especially in the genre of mysteries and thrillers? Last but not the least, how should your back cover copy or synopsis seize the interest of your reader?

About Great Starts and Editors

My debut novel “It Can’t Be You” started with “The man was dead.” I then went on to develop the opening scene where a body is found. At that stage those who find the body do not know whether the man was killed or killed himself. Many who read the book have commented that it set the tone for what became an absorbing psychological thriller.

Proof Speaking & Other Tips

I remember the time I was editing my second thriller ” Lucky For Some, Thirteen” before it was sent off to the publishers. Each time I went through the manuscript, I would find either an error or a clear opportunity to make the sentence “sound” better. That’s when I decided to “proof speak” rather than proof read.

This blog post in Ballpoint.com tells you why it’s a smart thing to proof speak your work. I found it very useful. The biggest gain is a better understanding of how it would sound to the reader.

Most description should come through dialogue but there are times when you need to find the right words to express the feelings of your characters as seen by others. I came across this list from author Kimberly T. Matthews. Your choice of the right word makes a big difference in your description. Kimberly’ s list should prompt you, as it did me, to add-on to our vocabularies. If we don’t, we could end up using the same old words all the time, novel after novel.

The best way to improve your writing is to actively seek ways of improving it and put them into practice. I believe proof speaking and using the right word to depict expressions are useful tips to any writer.

Ignore The Back Cover At Your Peril

Today, I thought I would share my views on that important part of the book, which some authors ignore at their own peril. I, of  course, speak of the back cover. Many authors, particularly first-timers, feel their job is done once they have written the book and handed it over to the publisher. I submit that you the author have a huge role to play in making the best use of the back cover.

Writing A Book Proposal

Till now I have written fiction and the process generally followed to get your manuscript finally published as a book is one I am familiar with. Key points here are to write a strong query, a succinct but interesting synopsis and of course have some top quality writing in the first few chapters. Without these, I am afraid, you may not succeed in your efforts to get your book published. But hang on a moment, is the submission process the same for non-fiction?

Year End Stock Take As A Writer

I began as a writer of fiction. Like many others, I started with short stories and it was in 2009 that I took the plunge and dived in deep into fiction with a full-fledged 80,000 + words novel called ” It Can’t Be You.” ‘This was a psychological thriller, first published in November 2010. Most people who knew me were initially surprised that with a background and experience in management, I had opted to write fiction. They expected I would write a treatise on people management or even some kind of  collection of my experiences as a human resources professional for over three and a half decades.

Punctuating Dialogue

While writing a novel, it is important for an author to focus on aspects of writing, other than the plot or developing the characters. The value of correct punctuation need hardly be emphasized. Incorrect punctuation while writing dialogue confuses the reader.